The following article first appeared in the Caldon Canal Society magazine "Cherry Eye" in 1978. Johnson Brothers, a member of the Wedgwood Croup's earthenware division, will be sending their third canal boat ‘Milton Princess' on her maiden voyage along the Caldon Canal, Hanley, on Tuesday Sat October 1978.

We are pleased to be able to make the study "to investigate the potential to restore, extend and develop the canal in Leek" available to read from the Trust's website.

As the full document with appendices runs to almost 200 pages it has been split into sections for ease of reading. Please follow the links below to download and read each section. (The file size for each section is shown in brackets.)

The initial aim of the excavations was to locate the line and nature of any remains of the railway line from the Swing Bridge and the siding to the canal. It was not known how much, if any of the metal rails remained in situ, and whether they were fixed to wooden, stone or concrete sleepers.

The main Mill buildings do not survive, but are shown from various directions in a series of old photographs from the Endonian Collection.

Endon is about 6 miles from Stoke on Trent, the Potteries, a major producer of china and earthenware. The Parliamentary Act for the Caldon Canal was passed in 1776, and it was opened from Etruria in the Potteries to Frogall past Endon around 1779. In 1847, ownership of the canal was transferred to the North Staffs Railway, which opened to Leek in 1867. There is no sign of the mill or tramway on Yates map of 1775.

At the invitation of the Endon & District Heritage and Environment Project excavations were carried out during Spring and Summer 2007 to try and locate the line of the single track railway which crossed the Caldon Canal by a Swing Bridge to serve the Victoria Flint and Colour Mill nearby.